The Most Beautiful Bride
Once the aftershocks had settled, Lapis could only stare down at her groin—stained with her own arousal and his seed—wearing the expression of someone who had no idea what she was supposed to say. She looked close to tears.
The vivid stain of the training ground inked into the skin beneath her thigh seemed, even now, to recall everything that had just happened in merciless detail. hastily pulling her bunched skirt back down, Lapis looked up at me.
In response, I awkwardly hauled my trousers back up and led her to the bathhouse that stood not far from the training yard.
It had been built for the knights to wash up after drilling here, so there would be no one inside at this hour.
That said, Lapis seemed to hesitate at the unmistakable traces of the men who frequented this place, and she stood there fidgeting, unable to bring herself to undress.
Tap.
She flinched!
Before long, a thick droplet of seed fell from beneath her hem, and her face flushed crimson as she hurriedly stripped and ducked into the bathhouse.
So there I washed alongside her, erasing every disheveled trace of what we'd done, and then we made our way to the Imperial Palace to attend Mary's wedding, which would soon begin.
"Ah……"
Even so, Lapis, who followed at my side, kept glancing nervously around, clutching the hem of her skirt tight again and again.
Because her arousal and my seed had soaked thoroughly into them, Lapis—freshly bathed and dressed once more—was not wearing any panties.
Perhaps that was why her bare lower half kept demanding her attention.
It didn't show through, exactly, but the line of her hips did seem to stand out a little more sharply than usual.
'……'
To be perfectly honest, watching her flounder like that stirred my lust all over again, and I caught my hand creeping toward her before I forced it back and simply stayed at her side, guarding the anxious girl instead.
*
"And why exactly do I have to come along?"
「Because you'd be bored stuck alone. You'll get a good show out of it too—I think it's worth your while.」
Back at the Imperial Palace and on my way to Mary's wedding hall, I had called for Aria to join us as well.
That she grumbled the whole way but came anyway was, I thought, a small mercy in itself.
"Is Mary such a precious maid to you that you'd deliver a congratulatory speech at her wedding?"
「When I was young, none of the maids dared come near me.」
I didn't need to spell out the reason—Aria knew it better than anyone.
While the Empress, the true power in the palace, was alive, the maids had no choice but to watch her every mood.
So I lived more or less in isolation within the palace, and I expected nothing much from Mary either, even though she'd been assigned as my personal maid.
「But Mary was different. Though, knowing her personality, maybe that was only natural.」
Our delightfully scatterbrained Mary found even the ordinary duties of a maid's service utterly overwhelming.
Then again, at the time she hadn't even been at the palace for three months—perhaps it was only to be expected.
It was absurd from the start that someone like her would be assigned as a prince's personal maid. But with the Empress watching, they'd likely sent the maid with the least experience and the least backing.
Well—I was rather grateful for it now.
「So why do you feel the need to ask about that?」
"It's not as if I've dug up some grand secret, is it?"
「Don't tell me you're jealous?」
When I held up the paper for her to read, Aria approached me with a laugh that said she found the very idea absurd.
"Jealousy is the inferiority complex of people better than me."
Her slender fingers straightened the bow tie of my formal dress, tugging it neatly into place.
"I'm at the very least more charming than Mary, so there's hardly any need for jealousy, is there?"
The statement was so brazen that I found myself nodding along before I knew it.
"And…… you know me, so I only wanted to know a little about you in return."
"……"
"Be-because I'm your big sister, that's all."
She said it, started walking, then turned back a beat too late to emphasize the big sister part. I gave a faint laugh at that and headed for Mary's wedding hall—the bride's waiting room.
Perhaps because it was one of the capital's designated wedding venues, the facilities were not bad at all.
How many pairs of lovers must have walked out of here as husband and wife?
Click.
I opened the door carefully and stepped inside to find Mary standing there with her parents.
The moment she saw me, she scrambled up from her seat and bowed at the waist, crisp and formal.
「Please, raise your head. I didn't come here to receive this kind of excessive courtesy.」
Laughing lightly to put her at ease, I handed her the box containing the wedding dress.
「Your birthday present is rather late, isn't it?」
When I urged her to open it, Mary checked the lid of the box—and her whole body gave a start.
Because the crest of the Flarris Workshop was engraved upon it.
"Th-this is……?"
Inside the large box, the commissioned wedding dress lay folded in perfect layers, and Mary stared at me in astonishment.
It carried a dignity entirely apart from dresses simply dripping with jewels.
To be sure, there were gems.
But the transparent stones, set so subtly they were nearly invisible, caught the sunlight streaming through the window and lent the gown beauty through a soft, natural glow.
「For one day—just today—this dress will make you the most beautiful woman in the world.」
"How could you give me such a gift……!"
"Thank you, Your Highness!"
Her parents, too, could hardly tear their eyes from the dress. Gathering themselves, they bowed deeply once more and poured out their gratitude.
"May—may I really wear it?"
「What kind of place is the Polaris Workshop?」
"It's a place that takes commissions only……"
「Right. And I had that dress made for you. If you don't wear it, who will?」
So that Mary wouldn't feel burdened, I wrote on kindly.
「This is my request. Will you please wear that dress for your wedding?」
At that, Mary nodded, her face trembling as if overcome with emotion.
Then, with her parents' help, she appeared before me a short while later in the wedding dress—and I was pleased to see that the gown's beauty did not, in fact, swallow Mary whole.
Naturally so. A dress tailored to a model's frame never produces the same visual effect on an ordinary person.
"Thank you…… truly, thank you. I—I've never in my life received a gift like this."
Gazing at her reflection in the mirror, Mary wept, tears falling one after another.
It was a relief that she hadn't yet begun her proper makeup and styling—otherwise she would have had to start all over again.
And that dress had a decree of permanence woven into it.
Unless someone deliberately destroyed it, that beauty would endure forever.
「Don't cry even if you're happy. I think you're far prettier when you smile.」
By now I had to go prepare my speech, so it was time to leave.
But before that, there was something I hadn't yet said, and I wrote it down quickly.
「Thank you for staying by my side.」
I wrote it just before the door closed completely.
「I wish you true happiness in your marriage, Mary.」
Despite my telling her not to cry, Mary burst into loud sobs.
Later, with both her eyes puffed up and swollen, I felt a little sorry for Sir Harun, who would have to receive that bride at the altar.
But then, I had made her the most beautiful bride in the world for this one day—so it hardly mattered, did it?
"You've arrived, Your Highness."
One of the guests, Sir Brand, who had come early, walked over to my side.
"The painter from Polaris Workshop is looking for you at this moment."
At Sir Brand's words, I nodded and made my way to the workshop's painter.
There was only one thing I intended to ask of him today.
To capture within a painting this wedding of Mary's—the bride who, dressed in that gown, had become the most beautiful woman in the world.
To frame that single painting and give it to Mary was the greatest and kindest thing I could offer.
And so, as two o'clock drew near, a clear bell tolled through the hall, announcing the entrance of the bride and groom.
"Oh my goodness……!"
"Is—is that really Mary?"
"No way!"
The maids in attendance, friends of the bride, went wide-eyed.
"Mary was always that pretty……?"
"Look at Harun, gaping like a fool. Can't take his eyes off her."
"Now that I look, the Polaris crest is engraved on the hem of her skirt."
"A gift from His Highness the Prince, don't you think? She was his personal maid, after all."
The knights' reactions were every bit as heated.
Before long, the bride, Mary, took the groom Sir Harun's hand, and the two walked slowly toward me.
His expression was solemn, but Sir Harun's face bore a tremendous pride that said, this woman is mine.
"Marriage vows."
As the two came to a halt before me, I opened my mouth, lending the words of ceremony the power of the decree.
"I offer my heartfelt congratulations on your marriage."
I had pondered the speech at length, and so I borrowed a little from the memories of my past life.
"They say a woman's beauty holds a marriage for three months, good cooking for thirty years, and a kind heart for a lifetime. During the first days of newlywed life, Sir Harun will seek out Mary to gaze upon her beauty; after that, to share her warm meals; and after that, to have his weary body healed from the day's labors."
At my words, those around us chuckled quietly.
"And so the two of you will face one another, slowly, as the years pass. Of course, along the way you will surely quarrel over feelings, and fight when your opinions do not align. Or an unforeseen crisis may come calling. But consider this."
I drew a short breath.
"All of us here have met many hardships in the lives we've lived thus far—and we have crossed over them. In just the same way, the troubles that arise within a marriage, the two of you will surely overcome as well. I ask only that you remember these words."
"……"
"This, too, shall surely pass."
It had been a saying that took root as a rather fine aphorism in my past life.
"Sir Harun."
"Yes!"
"Mary."
"Yes!"
"Do the two of you swear before this gathering that you are now wed—husband and wife, who will leave your footprints together, walking in the same direction?"
At my final question, Mary and Sir Harun gazed at one another for a long moment, then gently pressed their foreheads together and answered with a smile.
"We swear it!"
And so the speech concluded, and the couple's marriage was blessed by the well-wishes of countless guests.
The only exception was the painter from Polaris Workshop, sitting alone in a corner, his brush moving busily to capture this very moment.
*
Aria and Lapis.
As the two women listened to Rohen's speech, their eyes chanced to meet.
Both answered the look with smiles—each careful not to let the other glimpse her true thoughts—before turning away.
In that fleeting instant, the thought each held for the other was one and the same.
'Three months' worth, that one.'
'Three months' worth, indeed.'
They conceded one another's beauty, but nothing beyond it—each sizing the other up, and finding her wanting.